Romeo & Juliet Without the Dying
by VociferousMime
Summary: "Pain is nothing to a ninja." An Apritello oneshot.


Pain is nothing to a ninja. Donatello faces pain everyday. Between the soreness of his muscles after practice and the bruises he receives from battles with the Foot Clan and the Kraang, pain is just one of the many things that makes up Donatello's day. So why is it that a certain kind of pain can so easily bring him to his knees? This is the question that rings in his head every hour of every day. Since he was a child, Master Splinter had raised he and his brothers to be tough, vigilant, and, above all else, to be controlling of their own emotions. Leonardo and Donatello had always been good at the last point, while Raphael struggled even from an early age. It had only been recently that his feelings had fluxed. Strong, smart, ever-dependable Donatello was brought down by a head of red hair and sharp blue eyes.

Fire and gentleness took form in April O'Neil. That much Donatello was certain of. April sat on their rotting couch, typing away at a paper that she should have done weeks ago. Being a kunoichi-in-training made matters worse, since she would rather focus on fighting than her studies. Donatello tries to remind her just how important school is, but the point feels quite mute when she shoots him a glare from her ice blue eyes. It is not so much anger and frustration as it is more of an 'I know that' kind of look. Still, it shakes his whole world to its very core. April has a knack for doing that to him. So Donatello just watches from his lab. He can see the whole scene unfold. Mikey asks if April would like anything to eat, she rapidly replies no, he continues to bug her, she blows up; the whole thing is quite average for a stressed-to-the-ninth-power April. She quickly apologizes, but it's not enough for Mikey's now-bruised ego. Therefore, she accepts his offer reluctantly. And Mikey is back to being Mikey within nanoseconds. As the younger turtle runs to get her a slice of his latest pizza 'experiment', April breathes a sigh of relief. The first reaction is the fire and the second is the gentleness. That is the one and only thing Donatello has figured out about April O'Neil. At least, it's the only part about her personality he's figured out.

Donatello knows many other things undeniably. It's undeniable that she's the beauty you see in the eye of a storm. It's undeniable that she's the unstable atom in his genetic code. It's undeniable that she's radioactive and her touch has spread through his whole being. It's undeniable that's he's madly and desperately in love with her. Yes, he's known that from the moment he saw her. Beneath the metaphorical hearts in his eyes and the profusely sweaty palms, there was an affection that grew in him like the birth of a star. She has a gravitational pull and he is drawn to her. His mind spins rapidly and out of control. April is unquestionably radioactive and Donatello is poisoned by her.

Act two of the stressed April begins to unfold before his eyes. Leo walks in from training and sits across from April on the couch. He smiles and asks what she's doing. She replies, mouth full of the pizza Mikey had given her, and Leo nods, since the idea of papers elude him. Being lair-schooled was more 'learn your ABC's by doing push-ups' not 'give me a five page essay on why you shouldn't punch your brother outside of training'. Leo then proceeds to turn on the TV since Space Heroes is on. This gets the fire burning in April. She doesn't explode at first, no, that comes after Leo turns the volume up to an ungodly setting. Then BOOM! "Fine! I'll go write in Donnie's lab," She rages. Leo looks shocked, unsure of the damage he's apparently caused.

April huffs into Donatello's lab and storms right past him. She sits next to him at his desk and slams the laptop on the desk to continue typing. "Paper's that bad, huh?" He tries to joke, hoping she won't lash out at him. She doesn't. Instead, she groans and leans back onto her chair. "Yeah… I'm supposed to write about Romeo & Juliet, you know, the final scene. But it's just the most boring, overused story in the history of _ever_," At 'ever' she makes this gesture with her hands, "and it sucks even more because it's due tomorrow and I have three pages done." Donnie smiles, "what's the requirement?" April gives him a look of pain, "_ Ten_ pages is the _minimum_." He grimaces, "Ouch…" She puts her hand on her face, "Heh, yeah…" She leans back to her laptop and stares at the screen. "Donnie…" she fake-whines, "Help me…"

Donnie lives to help her. He's elated by her request. Literature, while not being as natural to him as science, has always been a favorite of Donnie's. "Well…" he begins, "It's overused because it's a classic. Family trouble, rivalries…"He glances over at April, "Star-crossed lovers…" He shakes the thought away and continues, "It's easy to relate to. Although, most relate to it in the _wrong_ way, but still…" Donnie scratches the back of his neck and finds the right words. "It's more about the ignorance of humanity than about romance. Sure, love is a prevalent part of Romeo & Juliet, but it sort of takes place as a starting point for other metaphors that Shakespeare was trying to portray. The Capulet household and the Montague household are evidently brought together by the death of their children. Love, even in death brings unity." He focuses on April after his small speech. Her expression is one of astonishment. "Wow, that…was amazing Donnie!" He chuckles and looks away, grabbing his neck. "S'nothing…"

April starts to type away on her keyboard, feeling inspired by Donnie's words. Donatello mulls over the irony of April's paper topic. Star-crossed lovers, ignorant humanity; he knew such topics all too well. It's too true of Donatello's own life. If April ever returned his feelings, she could never be public about it. The world could possibly accept he and his brothers as a whole, but no one would accept a cross-species romance. Star-crossed lovers at their finest, that's what he and April were. They were the turtle-human version of Romeo & Juliet—without the dying. Cliché as it may be, he had compared them to that since day one. That's why he could never act on his feelings.

To deny April of the 'normal' joys of human life seemed too cruel. To be married, have a family, and grow old together, all but the last he could not give to her. And even _he_ wasn't sure if he would live as long as her. Turtles live a long time, but that was a non-mutated turtle. Who knows what else the mutation had affected. Children were definitely out of the question. He tried not to let that pain get to him. Donatello was content with watching and observing. This was what he told himself as a spark would fly from his gentle fire and touch his heart. The pain he felt wasn't knowing the fact that he could never be with her, as much as he wanted to. No, the pain was much, much worse. The pain he felt…

Was _Hope_…


End file.
